


Watch plankton panic

by loveamongstars



Series: Whumptober 2020 [7]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen, Insomnia, Nightmares, Sleep Deprivation, Team Bonding, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:14:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26951998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveamongstars/pseuds/loveamongstars
Summary: Steve can't sleep - again.Whumptober Prompt 23: Sleep deprivation
Series: Whumptober 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953688
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Watch plankton panic

**Prompt 23 Sleep Deprivation**

Steve could not even tell when he really slept properly the last time. It must have been a while. His body was struggling with the lack of sleep by now. He noticed it at work, his reaction time was going up, which was not a good thing. That was why he decided to take a week off, to well, take a proper vacation even if he didn’t exactly know how to go about this. His insomnia was something he could not even figure out why it would happen. Maybe looking for the reason was the wrong thing here, but then again, usually, it was the reason that had to be tackled. 

When Steve couldn’t sleep again this night - again another horrible dream about members of his team dying - he decided to go out to run, but somewhere else. He took the car up to Kualoa Valley and ran the trail.

It was shortly after 2 am when he made his way to the place he parked his car. He was now very much exhausted, he knew that, but he had to drive home…or so he thought. As he looked at the car, he noticed something by the sea. A little light. At first, he thought it was some weird phenomenon, or his sleep-deprived mind playing tricks on him, but even as he looked at it clearly, he could see it again: A blue glow came from the ocean whenever a wave broke on Kualoa Beach.

It was a curious phenomenon, one that he decided to check out closer. Crossing the HI-83, he took his shoes off once he reached the sand. His every step lit up in a blue light whenever he stepped onto the wet sand. It was almost magical, no it was magical. He thought he remembered that this was a thing that could happen. It was a form of plankton in the ocean, that could cause this. Whatever it was, Steve allowed himself to sit down and just take in the sight of these glowing waves. It was almost meditative, maybe exactly what he needed and nature provided like she usually did. 

Steve jumped a little when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Someone sat down next to him and he didn’t have to look around to see that it was Danny. Danny sat down next to him.

“It’s beautiful. What is it?”

“Plankton, I think.” 

“That makes no sense,” Danny complained.

“But he’s right.” Steve looked around at Tani arriving at the beach. She sat down on the other side of him. “It’s a kind of plankton, it thrives in certain conditions and they start to glow when jostled. Bioluminescence. Super rare here in Hawaii, much more common in California, but, well climate change.” Steve was not for a second surprised Tani knew that. She was a mermaid fan after all and as such, any magical looking phenomenon in the sea would be soaked up by her, especially if it was this pretty. He looked at the two of them, then up at the street where Lou just arrived. It was clear what happened: Danny had noticed him leaving and had called the team to go look for him, when he didn’t return for hours. The fact that he parked the car just next to a highway and hadn’t moved it, might have done the rest to worry Danny. Plus, obviously, Danny had noticed he hadn’t been sleeping properly. To his surprise, he suddenly felt a blanket around his shoulders. Lou had put it there, then he sat down next to Tani. Tani leaned against him next, placing her head on his shoulder, just as Danny pulled him against him so he had to lean against him, too. Lou reached over Tani, to rub is back and he caught sight of Adam arriving and sitting down next to Danny. He too reached around Danny to rub his back. Danny had really alerted everyone it seemed. It was almost sweet…

Danny smiled softly as he felt Steve’s breathing even out against him. Looked like that did the trick. They couldn’t do it all the time, but if this gave him a few precious hours of sleep, then it was worth doing this for now. For other nights, they really needed to find a solution. He knew one, one that Steve would never agree to: Therapy. 

“So….” Tani said as Quinn arrived and settled next to Lou.

“So, we have all night to watch the Plankton panic in the waves, because he’d probably wake up if we moved away.”


End file.
